Claim Issue

Purpose

Atomically claim an eligible GitHub issue to prevent duplicate processing by other agent instances or rapid poll cycles.

Instructions

1. Before calling this skill, verify the issue ID is NOT in the processed-message log
2. Call claim_issue with the repository and issue number
3. If the claim succeeds (returns true):
   • Add the issue number to the processed-message log with disposition "Claimed"
   • Log: "Claimed issue #: "
   • Proceed to the appropriate development skill (develop-feature or fix-bug)
4. If the claim fails (returns false — race condition, already labelled):
   • Do not process the issue further
   • Log: "Issue # already claimed by another process"

Claim Rules

• Only claim issues with the agent-eligible label (or configured equivalent)
• Only claim issues NOT already labelled agent-in-progress or agent-complete
• Only claim issues NOT already recorded in the processed-message log

Expected Output

Boolean: true if claimed successfully, false if already taken.